Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand Review

In what is probably the most anticipated DLC this holiday season, DICE made sure this felt like a humongous addition to the game. For only $15 (free if you pre-ordered the game) players get access to: 10 new weapons, four new maps, three new vehicles, an all new game mode and an assignment feature.

All four maps are action packed and explosive. The implementation of the new vehicles gives the flow of battle a completely different pace. While the F35B fighter jet does feel significantly slower then other planes, it more then compensates for this with extremely tight turning capabilities. This causes the dogfights to be even more exciting. The BTR-90 Infantry Fighting Vehicle is pretty much the Battlefield 2 design of the APC. It plays no differently. The DPV Fast Attack Vehicle is hands down the best vehicle added to the game. It is an extremely fast, mounted with a grenade launcher and can turn quickly to avoid enemy fire.

The new Conquest Assault mode added is a nice change of pace for those who never wanted to touch Rush, but want a change from Conquest. In this new mode one team is attacking while the other is defending. The defending team starts with all of the objectives captured, while the attacking team starts with a higher number of tickets. This is a nice change of pace because it makes tactics a little more clear at the beginning instead of half of you squad defending while the rest just charge around aimlessly.

The new assignments are very similar to Call of Duty’s Challenges. The underlying difference here is that you must complete these new assignments to unlock all of the DLC weapons. This can seem quite tedious at times, but it’s nice once you actually earn those new weapons instead of them just being handed to you. As for the weapons, DICE did an outstanding job of balancing the weapons. Nothing feels too over or under powered, and they play very nice with the other weapons.

As for the maps themselves the four you are looking at is:

Sharqi Peninsula

Gulf of Oman

Wake Island

Strike at Karkand

Final Truth:

This is exactly what an expansion pack should be. Not only did DICE add a slew of maps, but also added tons of subtle game play additions. The team took their time deciding which vehicles to add to which maps and it definitely shows because from day one, there was a definite overall flow to the game play. Traditional to DICE’s reputations, no stone was left unturned, and no bug was left unchecked. Gaming industry, first-person shooters in particular, look at what DICE is doing with DLC this is exactly what gamers are looking for and willing to pay for. The only gripe I have is some of the maps have been altered from their Battlefield 2 state so much that they play differently all together. However, if you never played Battlefield 2 then you will not even notice because the maps are fun.

[xrr label=”Rating: 9.75/10″ rating=9.75/10]

+ Vehicles+ Weapons+ Maps+ New Game mode/Assignments is enjoyable– They went overboard on overhauling one map from Battlefield 2